With the launch of two solar farms of 2.5MW and 440kW capacities at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) here on Thursday, the airport operators formally took a decisive step towards generating 12% of its energy needs through solar power.
The Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) has indicated that the two projects are part of a larger plan to fulfil 50% of KIA's energy needs through renewable power in the next three years. The first project of 440kW has been installed in the car park area in front of the BIAL corporate office, and the second project of 2.5MW solar panels at the airside.
Both projects – jointly – will reduce carbon emission by 3125 tonnes per annum (3075 tonnes of CO2 emission per annum at the airside and 550 tonnes of CO2 emission per annum at the car park area). The project implemented by Bosch Limited and executed by the Bosch Energy and Building Solutions (BEBS) team in India, will generate approximately 4.4 Mio units of electricity, annually.
Commissioning the projects at KIA, BIAL's President – Airport Operations, Hari Marar said, “We have focused on sustainability and embarked on adopting renewable energy as part of our overall green vision. We aim to achieve 50% of our energy needs through renewable power in the next three years.”
Both projects were designed keeping in mind the uniqueness of their locations – the 440-kW project located at the car park area has been designed to optimize land usage enabling the generation of more than 6 lakh units of power, annually, and double as a car park for about 160 cars; due to the proximity to the runway, the 2.5-MW project has been additionally designed to sustain high wind speeds, according to BIAL.
The projects underwent a rigorous quality process to ensure an active life of 20 years. World Resources Institute (WRI) India assisted BIAL in the techno-commercial evaluation of the bids for this project.
Published 18 May 2017, 20:57 IST